Cognitive Dissonance

Description

This is the feeling of uncomfortable tension which comes from holding two conflicting thoughts in the mind at the same time.

Dissonance increases with:

• The importance of the subject to us.
• How strongly the dissonant thoughts conflict.
• Our inability to rationalize and explain away the conflict.

Dissonance is often strong when we believe something about ourselves and then do something against that belief. If I believe I am good but do something bad, then the discomfort I feel as a result is cognitive dissonance.

Cognitive dissonance is a very powerful motivator which will often lead us to change one or other of the conflicting belief or action. The discomfort often feels like a tension between the two opposing thoughts. To release the tension we can take one of three actions:

• Change our behavior.
• Justify our behavior by changing the conflicting cognition.
• Justify our behavior by adding new cognitions.

Dissonance is most powerful when it is about our self-image. Feelings of foolishness, immorality and so on (including internal projections during decision-making) are dissonance in action.

If an action has been completed and cannot be undone, then the after-the-fact dissonance compels us to change our beliefs. If beliefs are moved, then the dissonance appears during decision-making, forcing us to take actions we would not have taken before.

Cognitive dissonance appears in virtually all evaluations and decisions and is the central mechanism by which we experience new differences in the world. When we see other people behave differently to our images of them, when we hold any conflicting thoughts, we experience dissonance.

Dissonance increases with the importance and impact of the decision, along with the difficulty of reversing it. Discomfort about making the wrong choice of car is bigger than when choosing a lamp.

Note: Self-Perception Theory gives an alternative view.

Research

Festinger first developed this theory in the 1950s to explain how members of a cult who were persuaded by their leader, a certain Mrs Keech, that the earth was going to be destroyed on 21st December and that they alone were going to be rescued by aliens, actually increased their commitment to the cult when this did not happen (Festinger himself had infiltrated the cult, and would have been very surprised to meet little green men). The dissonance of the thought of being so stupid was so great that instead they revised their beliefs to meet with obvious facts: that the aliens had, through their concern for the cult, saved the world instead.

In a more mundane experiment, Festinger and Carlsmith got students to lie about a boring task. Those who were paid $1 felt uncomfortable lying.

Example

Smokers find all kinds of reasons to explain away their unhealthy habit. The alternative is to feel a great deal of dissonance.

So What?

Using it

Cognitive dissonance is central to many forms of persuasion to change beliefs, values, attitudes and behaviors. The tension can be injected suddenly or allowed to build up over time. People can be moved in many small jumps or one large one.

Defending

When you start feeling uncomfortable, stop and see if you can find the inner conflict. Then notice how that came about. If it was somebody else who put that conflict there, you can decide not to play any more with them.

Brainstorming - Generating many radical and useful ideas

Brainstorming is a useful and popular tool that you can use to develop highly creative solutions to a problem.

It is particularly helpful when you need to break out of stale, established patterns of thinking, so that you can develop new ways of looking at things. This can be when you need to develop new opportunities, where you want to improve the service that you offer, or when existing approaches just aren't giving you the results you want.

Used with your team, it helps you bring the experience of all team members into play during problem solving.

This increases the richness of solutions explored (meaning that you can find better solutions to the problems you face, and make better decisions.) It can also help you get buy in from team members for the solution chosen - after all, they have helped create that solution.

Brainstorming and Lateral Thinking

Brainstorming is a lateral thinking process. It asks that people come up with ideas and thoughts that seem at first to be a bit shocking or crazy. You can then change and improve them into ideas that are useful, and often stunningly original.

During brainstorming sessions there should therefore be no criticism of ideas: You are trying to open up possibilities and break down wrong assumptions about the limits of the problem. Judgments and analysis at this stage will stunt idea generation.

Ideas should only be evaluated at the end of the brainstorming session - you can then explore solutions further using conventional approaches.

If your ideas begin to dry up, you can 'seed' the session with, for example, a random word (see Random Input).

Individual Brainstorming

When you brainstorm on your own you will tend to produce a wider range of ideas than with group brainstorming - you do not have to worry about other people's egos or opinions, and can therefore be more freely creative. You may not, however, develop ideas as effectively as you do not have the experience of a group to help you.

When Brainstorming on your own, it can be helpful to use Mind Maps to arrange and develop ideas.

There are just a few individual brainstorming examples as follows.

• A professional businesswomen in her thirties wants to change her career. She doesn't know exactly what she wants to do, but she knows she isn't happy in her current line of work. She conducts an intense brainstorming session to determine which fields she should pursue.
• A son wants to get a very special gift for his parent's fiftieth anniversary, but he's not sure what to get them. He brainstorms different gift ideas to find a gift that will show his parents just how much he appreciates them.
• A department employee is being considered for a promotion and he wants to prove that he's the best man for the job. He brainstorms different ways to demonstrate his leadership skill, his value to the company and his management potential.

Group Brainstorming

Group brainstorming can be very effective as it uses the experience and creativity of all members of the group. When individual members reach their limit on an idea, another member's creativity and experience can take the idea to the next stage. Therefore, group brainstorming tends to develop ideas in more depth than individual brainstorming.

Brainstorming in a group can be risky for individuals. Valuable but strange suggestions may appear stupid at first sight. Because of such, you need to chair sessions tightly so that uncreative people do not crush these ideas and leave group members feeling humiliated.

Below are some brainstorming examples that show how group brainstorming can benefit individuals and organizations.

• A company may need to cut costs in order to meet budgetary requirements. The department heads may meet to brainstorm on how to reduce expenses without sacrificing resources.
• A company has an idea for a new product, but they aren't exactly sure how to market the product to the public. Members of the marketing team may brainstorm innovative marketing ideas that will ensure the product's success.
• A family member may be in financial crisis. Members of the family may brainstorm to develop a solution for the family member in trouble.

How to Use the Tool:

To run a group brainstorming session effectively, do the following:

• Define the problem you want solved clearly, and lay out any criteria to be met;
• Keep the session focused on the problem;
• Ensure that no one criticizes or evaluates ideas during the session. Criticism introduces an element of risk for group members when putting forward an idea. This stifles creativity and cripples the free running nature of a good brainstorming session;
• Encourage an enthusiastic, uncritical attitude among members of the group. Try to get everyone to contribute and develop ideas, including the quietest members of the group;
• Let people have fun brainstorming. Encourage them to come up with as many ideas as possible, from solidly practical ones to wildly impractical ones. Welcome creativity;
• Ensure that no train of thought is followed for too long;
• Encourage people to develop other people's ideas, or to use other ideas to create new ones; and
• Appoint one person to note down ideas that come out of the session. A good way of doing this is to use a flip chart. This should be studied and evaluated after the session.

Where possible, participants in the brainstorming process should come from as wide a range of disciplines as possible. This brings a broad range of experience to the session and helps to make it more creative.

And again, it's worth exploring the use of computer-based tools for group brainstorming. As long as you're reasonably quick with keyboard and mouse, these significantly improve the quality and effectiveness of a brainstorming session.

Key Points:

Brainstorming is a great way of generating radical ideas. During the brainstorming process there is no criticism of ideas, as free rein is given to people's creativity (criticism and judgment cramp creativity.)

This often makes group brainstorming sessions enjoyable experiences, which are great for bringing team members together.

Individual brainstorming is best for generating many ideas, but tends to be less effective at developing them. Group brainstorming tends to develop fewer ideas, but takes each idea further. Group brainstorming needs formal rules for it to work smoothly.

The above brainstorming examples shed light on how brainstorming can help individuals in both their personal and professional endeavors. While these brainstorming examples clearly indicate how brainstorming can be of benefit in various situations, it is important to remember that brainstorming can be applied to hundreds of other situations not included in the above brainstorming examples.

It Matters How You Say It

It Matters How You Say It

• "Remember the meeting time."
• "Don't forget the meeting time."

Do both of those say the same thing? Not as far as your brain is concerned.

Why?

The brain doesn't register the negative. So if you use the negative sentence “Don’t forget the meeting time,” your brain is ignoring the “don’t” and hearing the statement “forget the meeting time.”

If you use the positive sentence, “Remember the meeting time,” you’ll have a much better chance of seeing your participants show up on schedule.

The mind wants direction, not a sense of "lack." That's why it's important to pay attention to how you say things. If I tell you that something is "not very expensive" you'll focus on "expensive."

Try these:

• "New" vs. "Untried"
• "By 5 O'clock" vs. "By the end of the day"
• "Economical" vs. "Inexpensive"

Note: This is how improvement efforts often get bogged down at the outset.

HR and Training: Let’s Partner for Great Management Development Programs

HR topics, like progressive discipline, hiring, and performance appraisals are an important part of any management development program, especially training programs for new supervisors and managers. Most companies include these topics as a part of their curriculum, and often tap into their HR experts to deliver the content.

Makes perfect sense, right? Well, it’s been my experience, having managed these programs at three different companies, that the partnership between HR and training isn’t always as effective as it could be. It's more like dogs and cats. And when it doesn’t work as well as it should, our managers are the ones who suffer. Not to mention we come off looking like idiots – our credibility suffers.

Maybe this post will be used as the start of a discussion between HR and training? Go ahead, order a pizza or a platter of cookies, schedule a meeting, and give it a try. Your managers will appreciate it.

From the training department to HR: we need your help with our management development program:

• First of all, stop whining about how busy you are and how hard it is for you to find time to help with our management development programs. Busy with what? Dealing with problems that managers have created that could have been prevented if they were properly trained in the first place? This is a great opportunity to introduce yourself and begin to build positive relationships with newly promoted managers. Please treat this as a high priority, and an opportunity – not as a nuisance!

• we know you are the “content owners” for topics like performance management and hiring. We get that. We know a little about the topics too, so please listen to our input. With that, please accept that we are the experts on how to design and deliver effective training. So if we tell you that managers can’t absorb 100 PowerPoint slides with small font in a 45 minute session, trust us, they can’t. Let us help you design an effective learning plan.

• managers need to learn a lot. Your topic, although the most important thing in your world, is only a small part of theirs. A manager may only hire one employee a year, or fire one employee every ten years. So don’t try to teach them everything about the topic – they won’t retain it. The best we can hope to accomplish is that when something comes up, they’ll remember that they probably need your help and will know who to call.

• Show up to the session on time. Being late – or worse yet – canceling at the last minute is a slap in the face to our managers. Better yet, arrive early and stay late. Get to know the managers, have lunch with them.

• Here’s some bad news for you: your participant evaluation scores are usually the lowest rated of any section of the program. You’re killing our managers. We know most of you are not professional trainers – you’re subject matter experts – but please, get some help with your facilitation skills! Take a class, or let us help you. While training might be the main part of your job, being able to stand up in front of a group of managers and effectively engage them will serve you well in your career.

• Oh, and it’s not just your lack of presentation and facilitation skills that are killing them – it’s the way to talk to them and answer their questions. Come on, all of our managers are not morons, or lawsuits waiting to happen. When one of them works up the nerve to ask you a question, or share a challenge they are dealing with, don’t scold them and quote policy. Show respect for their abilities, and some empathy for what it’s like to be a manager. Be real – have a discussion, as a trusted partner.

From the HR department to training: we’d love to help with your management development program

• Look, we know there’s limited time on the management training agenda. Lord knows we wouldn’t want to cut back on the three days you’ve devoted to “servant coaching”, or whatever the latest leadership fad is you’ve fallen in love with. But guess what – managers still need to hire, fire, do performance appraisals, deal with unions, and all of the other topics you seem to find so boring. So please, if you’re going to ask for our involvement to cover these topics (and you should), could you give us more than 30 minutes?

• Our time is limited and valuable. We’re working 12 hour days dealing with bad stuff you never have to deal with. Yes, I know management training is important, and we want to be a part of it. But could please get your act together and schedule our involvement ahead of time so we can plan for it and make sure we’re available? And don’t change the schedule at the last minute and expect us to be able to drop everything and be available. Lastly – we often deal with real emergencies - stuff happens in our world. We’ll try to find a substitute, but it’s not always possible. When it does, don’t badmouth us.

• Please treat us as respected partners, especially in front of our managers. Recognize how challenging it is for us to walk into one of your programs, after you’ve been with them all week bonding with all of your feel good training exercises and showering them with candy. Then we show up and have to talk about progressive discipline. Maybe you could help set us up for success? Instead of “OK, this afternoon we have to do the HR stuff, sorry, it’s mandatory, don’t eat a heavy lunch”, etc…

• Recognize that we are subject matter experts for our topics. We deal with hundreds of these situations – we know our stuff. Don’t sit in the back of the room and roll your eyes, sigh, and please, don’t ever challenge us and disagree in front of our managers. We both end up looking like idiots. If you disagree, take it up with us outside of the classroom.

• We know we get low evaluation scores and snide comments. Welcome to HR, it comes with the territory. First of all, we’re not professional facilitators. We’re not as good as you are when it comes to answering a stupid question in a way that makes a manager look brilliant. We have an obligation to give a straight an accurate answer, and it that ruffles a few feathers, then so be it. But if you have some tips on how we can be effective in the classroom, we’d be glad to listen.

• Could you please not schedule us at the worst times, like after lunch, first thing Monday morning, or last think on Friday? Our topics are challenging enough, please don’t make it harder on us. We seem to get treated as “filler” for all of the garbage slots. And if you think of it, how about inviting us to stay for lunch, or join in on some of the other activities throughout the week? We not may be able to, but it sure would be nice to be invited.

So how about it? Managers, is this what you’re looking for? HR, training, is this fair? Would you add or challenge anything?

7 Hidden Reasons to Employees Leave

These 7 hidden reasons employees leave:

1. The job or workplace was not as expected.
2. There was a mismatch between job and person
3. There was too little coaching and feedback
4. There were too few growth and advancement opportunities.
5. Employees feel devalued and unrecognized
6. Employees are stressed from overwork and work-life imbalance.
7. A loss of trust and confidence in senior leaders.

(Source: The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave - Leigh Branham)

Character Sets the Foundation for Leadership

Leadership can never be divorced from the individual. And as a leader, you cannot impart what you do not possess. This is why “the main ingredient of good leadership is character”…

“The main ingredient of good leadership is good character. This is because leadership involves conduct and conduct is determined by values.” - Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf

Whilst many place value in titles and positions, it’s behaviour that wins people’s trust and respect. One of the foundational leadership principle is that leaders need to model the behaviours and attitudes which they expect from others. The example set by leaders are most powerful when grounded in values and when leaders live their values in their own authentic manner. When is comes to values they are most effectively demonstrated by your behaviour, words count, but not nearly as much as your deeds.

Good leaders lead from the front. They take the initiative to go first. People follow a person, before they buy into a strategy and plan. People need more than grand idea. They need to seen the idea lived in the flesh.

• Do you set the example by aligning your values with your actions?
• Do you lead from the front?